Posts Tagged ‘Amman’

Jordan has returned its ambassador to Israel three months after recalling him to Amman because of Jewish activists on the Temple Mount, which promoted daily violence by Arabs.

International media tried to explain that a spree of grisly Arab terrorist attacks on Jews was a result of Muslim anger over Jews on the Temple Mount.

Mohammad al-Momani, the Jordanian government spokesman, told The New York Times that there has been a “significant improvement” in coordination with Israel for Muslims to pray at the Al Aqsa mosque on Fridays, the Muslim Sabbath, and with Muslim clerics for tourists and Jews to visit the holy site.

“We felt the message was heard loud and clear, and it is time for the ambassador to go back and to continue following Jordanian interests,” Momani told the newspaper.

The envoy, Walid Obeidat, arrived in Tel Aviv Monday night.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stated, “This is an important step that reflects the shared interests of Israel and Jordan and first among them, stability, security and peace.”

Daily violence on the Temple Mount three months ago was only the climax of years of anti-Israeli incitement at mosques and in media in the Arab world, including the Palestinian Authority.

Constant reports that Jewish civilians and soldiers “stormed” the Temple Mount, plotting to destroy the Al Aqsa mosque and build the Third Temple were destined to cause a volcanic eruption.

It burst approximately three months ago with Muslims rioting on a daily basis and making it virtually impossible for Jews to visit the Temple Mount, which police often closed off to Jews.

Attempts by Jews to pray at the holy site, forbidden by Muslim authorities, and visits by Knesset Members infuriated Muslims.

U.S. Secretary of State, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Jordan’s King Abdullah met in Amman in an unannounced meeting, which paved the way for a return to calm on the Temple Mount.

All of a sudden, two Cabinet ministers announced that Knesset Members should not visit the Temple Mount.

At the same time, Arab media stopped telling readers that Jews are “invading” the Temple Mount and digging tunnels to undermine the Al Aqsa mosque

Nothing was put in writing in Jordan, but it can be assumed that Netanyahu promised that Jews will not pray there.

As previously reported here and here, the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty specifically provides for mutual respect for worship at the holy site.

As with most treaties between Israel and the Arab world, they simply are the basis for future arguments.

Jordan has recalled its ambassador from Israel for “consultations” — and to protest the closure of the Temple Mount in connection with Arab violence spreading across Jerusalem.

According to the official Jordanian Petra news agency, Amman recalled its ambassador over “the unprecedented and escalated Israeli aggressions” at the Temple Mount, and “repeated violations in the holy city.”

Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh was set to meet today (Wednesday, Nov. 5) with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris to discuss the situation, officials said in Amman.

Jordanian officials also told journalists they intended to file a complaint with the United Nations Security Council.

Under its peace treaty with Israel, Jordan was given custodianship of the Muslim holy sites, according to former Jordanian Prime Minister Abdelsalam al-Majali.

The retired official told i24news that he was the one who signed the 1994 peace treaty brokered by then-U.S. President Bill Clinton, together with King Hussein and former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in Washington D.C.

Any violation of the status quo would be met with a harsh response from Amman, al-Majali told the Tel Aviv-based television network.

Israel has named Einat Schlein to represent the Jewish State in Jordan. She will be the first female ambassador to serve in the post in an Arab country. The appointment is one that could potentially cause complications due to cross-cultural issues regarding gender relations, although of all the Arab nations, Jordan is the most Westernized.

Schlein began her diplomatic career in Amman, and also served at the Israeli embassy in Washington DC. She currently heads a division at the Center for Political Research, an intelligence and analysis-based branch of the foreign ministry.

Israel became an energy producer for the first time today with the closure of a deal to export natural gas to Jordan from the mammoth Leviathan gas field.

Leviathan will become Jordan’s main supplier of natural gas in the coming years. Months of discussions in the Israeli government eventually ended earlier in the year with a decision that the country would be allowed to export 40 percent of its offshore natural gas reserves.

Noble Energy Inc., Delek Group Ltd, Avner Oil and Gas LP and Delek Drilling Limited Partnership and Ratio Oil Exploration were expected to sign a $15b Memorandum of Understanding today (Sept. 3, 2014) to export natural gas for the next 15 years to Jordan.

Israeli Minister of Natural Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources Silvan Shalom, and the U.S. State Department were both involved in the deal.

The Leviathan gas field is a large natural gas field located in the eastern Mediterranean Sea off Israel’s coastline, about 47 kilometers (29 miles) southwest of the Tamar gas field. It is located approximately 130 kilometers (81 miles) west of Haifa, in waters about 1,500 meters (4,900 feet) deep.

The Palestinian Authority is hoping to use the upcoming visit by Pope Francis as a political pipebomb with which to further attack an already-dead peace process.

The itinerary of the Holy See is set to begin in Amman, where the Pope will meet with King Abdullah II. From there the leader of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church will fly to the Holy Land on Sunday for a two-day visit that starts in Bethlehem — a logical choice given its proximity to Jordan and its importance in Christianity.

He will hold a mass there, meet there with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, and later visit a “refugee camp,” allegedly to “underscore his support for the Palestinians,” according to PA Christian Affairs adviser Ziyad Bandak, who was quoted by Arutz Sheva.

Bandak said through that visit, the Pope will ‘see firsthand the “suffering of the Palestinian Arabs under the Israeli occupation…’

“This visit will help us in supporting our struggle to end the longest occupation in history,” he reportedly said. “I know that Israeli officials are not happy with this decision. We welcome this visit and consider it as support for the Palestinian people and confirmation from the Vatican of the need to end the occupation.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Paul Hirschson told CBN News, however, the Pope is “coming here to spend time with everybody,” noting the convenience of the scheduled itinerary.

The Pope and his entourage are also expected to meet with Israeli leaders and to discuss the status of Jerusalem. The agenda is likely to include the extremely controversial issue of who will have authority over the area that houses King David’s tomb.

“He’s coming here to see us. He’s coming on a Christian pilgrimage… With all due respect to everybody’s inflated egos with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this is not the focus of his visit. It’s a wonderful thing that he’s coming to visit. Hundreds of foreign journalists and thousands of Christian pilgrims are looking forward to his visit. We don’t always have to exploit every single thing.”

The fact is, fully 60 percent of all incoming visitors to Israel at present are Christian.

And most of the Christian Arabs in Bethlehem have been viciously harassed by that city’s Muslims. Many have fled as a result. So if anything, the Pope is beginning his visit there as a gesture of solidarity to his people in that city, who desperately need his support.

Moreover, if we’re talking about the “longest occupation in history,” we may as well go back 2,000-plus years. Let’s discuss the expulsion of most of the Jews from this Land by the Romans and the subsequent occupations by our Gentile enemies, one after the other, including the rivers of Jewish blood that ran in our streets.

That history is all written down for anyone to see – and there remain at least several descendants of Jewish families in the Galilee village of Peki’in who can trace their lineage all the way back to those times. Not to mention the Yemenite Kohanim and Levi’im (members of the priestly sect), many of whom can also trace their lineage back to the time their ancestors were forced to leave, during the period when the Holy Temple in Jerusalem still stood.

But just as the Jews lost that ancient war, so too were we promised by the Creator that eventually we would return to our Land. Every monotheistic faith knows of that promise, and has read it in what the Christians refer to as the “Old Testament:”

Deuteronomy 30:1 –And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations, to which the L-rd your G-d has driven you, :2 –And shall return unto the L-rd your G-d, and shall obey His voice according to all that I command you this day, you and you children, with all your heart, and with all your soul; :3 –That then the L-rd your G-d will turn your captivity, and have compassion upon you, and will return and gather you from all the nations, from where the L-rd your God has scattered you. :4 –If any of yours are driven out upon the outmost parts of heaven, from there will the L-rd your G-d gather you, and from then will He fetch you: :5 –And the L-rd your G-d will bring you into the Land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will do you good, and multiply you above your fathers.

The Prime Minister’s Office came out swinging in an overnight Independence Day statement Yom HaAtzma’ut, bluntly denying that President Shimon Peres ever reached a final status deal with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

The statement, reported overnight by Voice of Israel government radio, denied a claim by the president reported earlier in the day that he had reached an agreement with the Ramallah-based PA chairman three years ago.

“The only one Abbas has reached an agreement with is with [the Gaza-based terrorist organization] Hamas,” commented the PMO.

President Peres had told Israel’s Channel 2 TV in an interview over the holiday that three years ago he reached a deal in principle after four meetings abroad with Mahmoud Abbas. However, he said it was scotched by Prime Minister Netanyahu, who nixed the agreement just prior to what was to be a fifth and final meeting in Amman.

The president said Mr. Netanyahu told him to wait because Quartet Middle East envoy Tony Blair, a former UK prime minister also involved in talks with the PA, might bring to the table a better offer. “But the days passed and that deal never materialized,” Mr. Peres lamented.

Israel’s president – whose position is primarily ceremonial and traditionally not intended to be functionary – said his own discussions had been about land swaps and total land mass rather than boundary lines. Maps had not yet been drawn, the president said, reported the Independent Media Review and Analysis, IMRA.

Cancelling the fifth meeting, he allegedly told the PA Chairman in August 2011, “I’m sorry, but the government doesn’t accept what we have negotiated and there’s nothing more I can do.”

The “secret” talks were never secret, however, and there is some question over how far the president’s diplomatic authorization supposedly reached.

President Peres, who was the architect of the failed Oslo Accords, is expected to retire next month as he reaches the age of 90 after a political career of seven decades.

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon is meeting today with the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee as lawmakers review the current security situation.

On the agenda are all recent events, including those of the ‘price tag’ incidents, ‘David the Nahlawi’ and the attacks in Judea and Samaria that followed the cessation of final status talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry set off this morning for the Jordanian capital to meet Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in hopes of heading off a diplomatic disaster. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters in Europe the goal of the meeting is to “continue to narrow the gaps between the parties.”

Kerry is on a mission to convince Abbas to reverse his position that he has no intention of continuing negotiations with Israel over the U.S. sponsored “framework agreement.”

Nine months of negotiations for a final status agreement have resulted in little more than Israel’s release of 78 PA terrorists and the opening of more roadblocks at pivotal points leading to Arab cities along major arteries in Judea and Samaria as a “good will gesture” to jump start the talks.

No significant negotiations have taken place since November 2013 despite the move.

Abbas made his position clear at the Arab League summit yesterday in Kuwait, saying the PA did not need new agreements that would be “buried” by Israel through reservations and preconditions. The PA leader has continued to maintain his insistence that Israel pull back to the 1949 Armistice line. Both the PA and the Arab League have refused to recognize Israel as a Jewish State – a red line for Israel in the negotiations – and both insist the PA create its desired independent state on “all the territories that were occupied in 1967.”